By now you know that in addition to CJ Stroud, the Houston Texans have been bit hard by the injury bug, putting a staggering 14 players on their injury report on Wednesday afternoon. Some names were expected, like Stroud and Tytus Howard, both of whom were knocked out of Houston's Week 9 loss to the Denver Broncos with concussions. Others were moderately surprising and certainly concerning.
But the Texans did get some good news coming out of Thursday afternoon's practice. Two of the eight starters that were listed on the team's first injury report of the week were back on the practice field today. Starting running back Nick Chubb, who missed Wednesday's practice with a foot injury made his return, as did edge rusher Will Anderson Jr., who has been dealing with a quad issue.
Anderson made his presence felt the last time these two teams played back in September. The third-year star finished the game with 4 tackles, 1 sack and 2 hits on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Although Anderson, the team's leader in sacks, quarterback hits and tackles for loss, is the headliner here for good reason, Houston having a healthy Nick Chubb available for Sunday's game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars would be huge for a Texans offense that will be starting Davis Mills in place of CJ Stroud and likely relying even more heavily on their ground game.
This season, Chubb leads the Texans in attempts (91), rushing yards (355) and rushing touchdowns (2), though there seems to be a desire within Houston's fanbase to see less Chubb and more Woody Marks. Marks has been a viable change of pace option in his rookie year, and he's given the Texans significantly more as a pass-catcher than Chubb has.
But on Sunday, Houston will need a full backfield by committee to control the time of possession and have a chance of securing a split with the Jaguars this season. Jacksonville's defense has been stout against the run this year, ranking 3rd in total rushing yards allowed and 5th in yards per rush. Back in Week 3 when these two teams played for the first time, Houston was limited to just 87 rushing yards, but only 65 of those yards came from Chubb and Marks.